Georges Hugnet:

An Inventory of His Papers in the Carlton Lake Collection at
the Harry Ransom Center

Creator:

Hugnet, Georges,
1906-1974

Title:

Carlton Lake Collection of Georges Hugnet Papers

Dates:

1920-1971

Extent:

18.5 boxes (7.77 linear
feet).

Abstract:

Composed largely of letters received from
prominent French artists of the 20th century, the papers of French poet and
critic Georges Hugnet document his career and personal life. One notable work
contained in these papers is a manuscript of
Non vouloir, one of the earliest French
Resistance publications.

Languages

Material
written in French
and English.

Note:

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation, which provided funds for the processing and cataloging of this
collection.

Georges Hugnet, French poet and critic, was born in Paris in 1906. He
spent most of his early childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in 1913
returned to Paris to attend boarding school at Saint-Louis-de-Gonazgue. He
later attended collège at Janson-de-Sailly in Saint-Malo, the childhood home of
his mother and favorite vacation spot during his youth. Youthful exuberance and
a penchant for pranks often caused trouble for young Georges, including an
incident when he is said to have played
Le Pélican, a fox-trot, during one of the
religious services at his collège in Saint-Malo. Hugnet's early rebelliousness
eventually developed into a combative, stubborn nature causing quarrels with
publishers, other artists, poets, friends, and family throughout his life.

Hugnet was a man of many talents and dabbled in a variety of artistic
pursuits including poetry, editing, publishing, translating, film and play
writing, acting, rare book collecting, and book binding design until his death
in 1974.

Influential friends and mentors played an important role in Hugnet's
career. In 1920, he developed a friendship with his downstairs neighbor Marcel
Jouhandeau. Jouhandeau influenced the young poet Hugnet and introduced Hugnet
to his hero Max Jacob. During this time, Hugnet was also befriended by a number
of other influential artists of the early 20th century, namely Joan Miró,
Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Tristan Tzara, Man Ray, and Jean Cocteau. With
financial backing from his father, a furniture manufacturer, Hugnet established
the publishing company Les Editions de la Montagne with the intent of
publishing his own works and the work of his close friends including Tristan
Tzara, Pierre de Massot, and Gertrude Stein.

It was Virgil Thomson who introduced Gertrude Stein and Hugnet in
1926. Stein and Hugnet's short-lived, intense relationship, lasting until 1930,
ended in a quarrel over the title page of
Enfances, a collaborative project between
the two authors. Hugnet originally wrote the poems of
Enfances in French and Stein intended to
translate the poems into English. The partnership failed when Stein's
translations became reflections and she demanded
equal billing on the title page. Hugnet refused and the partnership, as well as
the friendship, ended. In 1931, Stein published
Before the Flowers of Friendship Faded Friendship
Faded, her response to Hugnet's then unpublished
Enfances.

In the 1930s Hugnet became involved with the Surrealist movement.
André Breton, the self-declared
"Pope" of the Surrealist movement,
became interested in Hugnet after reading an article titled
"Spirit of Dada in Painting" that
Hugnet had written. When a mutual friend of both men, Tristan Tzara, introduced
them, Hugnet became one of the Surrealists. He continued contributing to the
Surrealist movement until 1939 when Breton
"excommunicated" Hugnet for his failure
to cease his friendship with former surrealist Paul Éluard.

The 1940s brought much change to Hugnet's life. Germany occupied
France early in the decade prompting Hugnet to join the French Resistance. He
put his intellectual efforts towards the Resistance and published
Non vouloir, one of the first Resistance
pieces published in France. In 1940, Hugnet also married his first wife
Germaine Pied; their marriage would last for ten years.

In 1950, Hugnet married Myrtille Hubert, a young woman of seventeen.
The following year, Hugnet and Myrtille's first and only son Nicolas Hugnet was
born.

Until his death in 1974, Hugnet continued to publish a few new works
and republish new editions of his former works. But mostly he concentrated on
trading and collecting rare books and manuscripts from his friends in the
French literary world.

Lake, Carlton.
Confessions of a Literary
Archaeologist. New York: New Directions, 1990.

The Works series is composed of original works by Georges Hugnet.
Included in this series is the handwritten manuscript for
Non vouloir.

Letters written by Hugnet in Series II. are dominated by those to
Germaine (Pied) Hugnet, his first wife.

The Recipient series, forming the bulk of the papers, includes letters
from Paul Éluard, Marcelle Ferry, Valentine Hugo, Man Ray, Virgil Thomson, and
Alice B. Toklas, and richly demonstrates the friendships and business
acquaintances of George Hugnet.

The final series, Other Papers, contains artwork, building plans,
personal documents, printed materials, and documents written by other
individuals, either as works or correspondence.

Other Georges Hugnet materials are available at the Ransom Center.
Letters between Georges Hugnet and Gertrude Stein are found in the Gertrude
Stein segment of the Carlton Lake Collection as well as proofs for Stein and
Hugnet's attempted collaboration
Enfances. Valentine Hugo's papers, also in
the Carlton Lake Collection, contain correspondence between Hugnet and Hugo.
The Photography Collection has an exhibition guide from the Galerie Zabriskie
titled
"Georges Hugnet, artist, poet, critic: an
exhibition of surrealist collages including original works". An audio
recording of Hugnet reading
Tout beau mon coeur was transferred to the
Sound Recordings Collection. Additionally, multiple books were transferred from
the Georges Hugnet Papers to the Ransom Center Library. Most of the transferred
books contain autographed inscriptions for Georges or Germaine Hugnet.